


Adrift on the tides of love

by fluffbird



Series: Post-Uprising Newmann [2]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Comfort, Love, M/M, Mind Meld, Post-Movie: Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), Recovery, Recreational Drifting, The Drift (Pacific Rim), brief mentions of su, but you don't need to know the show to understand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 17:05:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15823224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffbird/pseuds/fluffbird
Summary: “Hermann?” Newton had asked last night, when they’d both been laid in bed, holding each other close – for once, not out of desperation or fear or a need for comfort, but rather out of love and joy at the other’s presence. “I want to drift with you again.”In which Hermann and Newton try out drifting for purely recreational purposes for the first time.





	Adrift on the tides of love

“Hermann?” Newton had asked last night, when they’d both been laid in bed, holding each other close – for once, not out of desperation or fear or a need for comfort, but rather out of love and joy at the other’s presence. “I want to drift with you again.”

Hermann had been taken aback at first, concerns flashing through his mind – about how Newton had gotten addicted to drifting with that abomination, how he’d lost himself to that rush, how he’d been taken advantage of – but Newton had reassured him, reminded him how he was free now, how those damned Precursors no longer had a grip on his mind. He just wanted to be close to him, he said, he wanted to feel the cogs of that brilliant mind working together with his own in perfect unison. He’d felt it during that first drift, and Hermann had to admit: the Anteverse may still give him nightmares but he’d also felt _Newton’s_ mind and somehow that had felt so _right_ , like two pieces of a puzzle fitting together, two minds becoming one and still remaining two and for a few minutes withstanding the overwhelming pressure of the _other_ mind that had been surrounding them.

And so, after a bit of persuasion, he’d agreed, and they’d went to sleep, knowing tomorrow would be the day.

* * *

 

“You ready?” Newton asked, one hand clasping Hermann’s tightly and the other hovering over the switch. It had only taken them a few hours to find the parts they needed and assemble the homemade PONs unit – Newton had done it several times before, after all, and while they didn’t have access to the junkyards of the PPDC anymore they had plenty of electronics stores in their vicinity and by spreading their purchases out over them they were fairly sure they wouldn’t be under much suspicion.

Hermann took a deep breath, clenching Newton’s hand a bit tighter. He still wanted this, and he was indeed ‘ready’, but he was… nervous. He knew there was nothing to fear, not really, but his previous drifting experiences hadn’t exactly been pleasant. _Neither have Newton’s,_ he reminded himself, trying to shake off the baseless fear.

“I’m ready,” he said. Newton seemed to hesitate a little – perhaps his voice had been shaking too much, perhaps he’d been gripping his hand too tight – but he flipped the switch and they were pulled _in._

* * *

 

_Blue, blue, so much blue. A child’s bedroom covered in movie posters that flickered and were replaced by bookcases. Smiling faces, crying faces, friends, lovers, family- flashing before his- their- inner eye-_

_Glimpses of classrooms and laboratories, chalkboards and equations, of **their** lab, the Shatterdome, Jaegers, Kaiju-_

_They found Newton on the floor, nose bleeding, shaking in the PONs, they ran to get help as fast as their bad leg would carry them-_

_Otachi, her tongue extending toward them, fearfearfearfear-_

_“I’ll go with you” “You’d do that for me? I mean- with me?”_

_Blue- bad blue- hell- Anteverse- kaiju-_

_Fear, fear, anticipation- joy! They’d won-_

_“You felt it too, didn’t you?” “We belong together”_

_Love, lovelovelovelovelove, joy, pleasure-_

_Apart, why were they apart- why did he leave them- why did they leave him-_

_Precursors- pain- alone-_

_“I’m sorry Hermann, they’re in my head”_

_Grief- he couldn’t be dead they were lying- he couldn’t be gone-_

_painpainpain please make it stop i don’t know anything **they** won’t tell you anything-_

_He was alive! Joy, joy, but also fear, but joy!_

_Reunion, pain, recovery, joy-_

_They sat by his bed, every day, they wouldn’t leave him-_

_Waking up, “How long was I out?” “A year and a half.” “They’re gone now.”_

_Apologies- making up- growing closer-_

_“I love you.” “Love you too, Herms.”_

* * *

They snapped back into the present with a jolt, panting and shaking slightly but feeling... okay. They felt okay in a way they hadn’t in a long time, not alone, safe, except they’d always felt safe, they just had to protect him-

Oh

They looked up, bodies moving in unison. Newton’s face was smiling at him, and Hermann could see himself smiling back through Newton’s eyes. It was odd, yet not odd at all- like they had always been meant to be like this, united and separate at the same time, both one and two. A memory he knew wasn’t his floated through their mind, some kid’s show from the 10s that Newton had loved, something about giant women and _‘you are an EXPERIENCE’_ and being _made of love_ and that’s when it hit him, the wave of complete and pure love shining across their linked minds.

“Oh my god,” whispered Newton, tackling Hermann in a hug and pressing his face into Hermann’s shoulder, and Hermann wrapped his arms around Newton and he felt the warmth of his body, but also the warmth of his _own_ body, the softness of his own shirt against Newton’s cheek, and he wasn’t sure which of their chests that laughter was bubbling up in until he realized it was _both of them_.

They sat there for a while, physical bodies pressed close and minds even closer, intertwining yet remaining separate, basking in the pure love that they felt for each other. Hermann understood now, what people meant when they said their love couldn’t be described by words, because right now he could _feel_ the love Newton felt for him and Newton could _feel_ the love he felt for him and there really were no words to describe that feeling, that emotion, that joy. He didn’t realize he was crying until Newton noticed the wet spot on his shirt and they sat back up and just looked at each other and _do you really think I’m that beautiful? Of course I do-_ they smiled and laughed and cried tears of joy.

“We have to do this again,” said Newton, and Hermann didn’t need to say a word for Newton to know that he agreed.


End file.
